Meet Justine ‘Teenie’: From School Choirs to International Stages

Justine, better known to us as Teenie, is a Melbourne vocalist, songwriter and live performer with The Adele Show and original pop-punk band Pink Rock Salt. She studied contemporary music performance at JMC Academy, has performed at the MCG and travelled to Indonesia with The Adele Show.

That is the neat summary. The actual story starts with High-5, The Wiggles and a child who had already made up her mind.

“I just wanted to be a singer.”

Teenie at a glance

Name	Justine
Known as	Teenie
Role	Vocalist
Bands and projects	The Adele Show and Pink Rock Salt
Training	Contemporary Performance at JMC Academy
Early musical mentor	Teresa Tonks
Main genres	Pop, pop-punk and rock
Influences	Adele, Pink, Demi Lovato, Little Mix and musical theatre
Favourite Adele song to perform	“Water Under the Bridge”
Favourite original song to perform	“Ballad of the Broken”
Performance style	Fun, expressive and emotive
AFL team	Collingwood
Dream future gig or location	The United States

Where did Teenie’s love of singing begin?

Teenie has loved music for as long as she can remember. High-5 made the strongest early impression, with The Wiggles also part of the soundtrack. She was not studying vocal technique or analysing arrangements. She saw people singing, dancing and performing, and wanted in.

She joined the primary-school choir and remembers getting a solo when the school performed material from Camp Rock. She also danced for about ten years, including dance concerts. In high school the productions became more serious and she eventually moved into lead roles.

Teenie also names Teresa Tonks, her music teacher while she was growing up, as a major inspiration in her life. Tonks passed away a few years ago, but her place in Teenie’s story reaches well beyond a list of musical influences.

Teenie, at right, with two fellow Adele Show vocalists. Her ten years of dance training still show in the way she moves once the band starts.

What did classical singing lessons teach her?

From around Year 7, Teenie had approximately three years of classical singing lessons. At the time, she disliked the training enough to stop. As a working singer looking back, she wishes she had continued.

The exercises that can feel remote from the music a teenager wants to sing make more sense later, when breath, pitch, range and stamina have to work night after night. At university, reading music was harder than it might have been if she had stayed with the training. It did not stop her. She simply understands its value now in a way she did not at thirteen.

Where did Teenie study music?

After high school, Teenie studied contemporary music performance at JMC Academy, with voice as her major area. The turning point was realising that other people had built working lives around music.

Her response was: “Why can’t I?”

She completed a bachelor degree. Teenie says the qualification also gave her a pathway into teaching singing, although she has not pursued teaching professionally.

JMC’s current Bachelor of Music majoring in Contemporary Performance combines individual tuition with musicianship, ensemble work, live performance, composition and recording. Teenie’s course predates that current description, but university was clearly broader than a sequence of singing lessons.

How did Pink Rock Salt become Teenie’s first band?

Pink Rock Salt was Teenie’s first band, and she is still part of it. The introduction came through someone she was dating at university who played guitar in the group. The relationship ended. The band survived. Teenie finds that fairly funny, which is probably the correct response.

Pink Rock Salt writes and performs original pop-punk and rock. Beat described the group as a five-piece from Melbourne’s western suburbs when it launched its debut single, “The Lonely”, in 2023. Digital music services list the ten-track album Never Explain, released on 2025-12-05, including Teenie’s favourite original song to perform, “Ballad of the Broken”.

Teenie says the band recorded the album at The Loud Noise Estate and calls the sessions one of her best musical experiences. That studio credit is her recollection; we have not found it in a public album credit. “Ballad of the Broken” gives her exactly what she likes: a large, dramatic ballad and a proper vocal moment of her own.

What were Teenie’s first professional performances?

One of Teenie’s earliest paid performances took place at a golf club where she had previously worked as a waitress. After she left the job, the club invited her back for an afternoon acoustic set. Same room, different reason for being there.

Her first remembered paid performance with The Adele Show was at Kindred Studios in Yarraville around 2018. The scale changed gradually: an acoustic afternoon, a local bandroom, years of rehearsals and original writing, then major venues and an international booking.

What does Teenie do in The Adele Show?

Teenie is one of the vocalists in The Adele Show, singing the layered harmony parts and stepping forward when the arrangement calls for it. She also brings the dancing background that began long before the band existed.

Her influences make the Adele catalogue a natural fit. Adele, Pink, Demi Lovato and Little Mix sit alongside musical theatre, pop-punk, rock and the 1980s records she heard through her dad. The common thread is singers being given enough room to do something substantial.

Her favourite Adele song to perform is “Water Under the Bridge”. It has energy, a strong build and room for the expressive singing she prefers. Live harmonies still have to lock with the lead vocal, the band and the room, including when the monitor mix is less polite than everyone hoped.

Teenie at the front of the stage during a full-band performance. The job combines close harmony work with the movement and expressive delivery she has carried from dance concerts into live music.

Our guide to what happens during a band soundcheck explains the technical preparation behind that performance. The article on what it costs to book a live band covers the less visible working hours around it.

What have been Teenie’s biggest performances?

Teenie names The Adele Show’s 2026 trip to Jakarta as the biggest performance of her career so far. She estimates the wedding audience at about 800 and remembers the President of Indonesia being among the guests.

The band’s account of the Jakarta trip confirms that Indonesia’s president and a former president attended. It also records the passports, visas and a one-hour set being trimmed to about 50 minutes.

Teenie’s complete review was one word: “Unbelievable.”

The Adele Show at Melbourne Airport before the July 2026 Jakarta trip. Teenie is at right. Months of planning sat behind one 50-minute international performance.

A close second was performing in the Members’ area at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Teenie mainly remembers having enormous fun. We have not added a date or event name because those details are not confirmed in the current band archive.

What happens when a gig goes completely sideways?

The glamorous venues are only half the job. One Pink Rock Salt show gave Teenie a different sort of memory.

The room was almost empty. The band had not expected to headline but somehow ended up doing it. During the set, a man tried to take Teenie’s microphone, moved extremely close, drank her water and waved a branch near her while she kept singing.

Her description of the night is characteristically restrained: “It was just a very interesting night.”

Not every memorable show is memorable for the right reasons. She did keep singing while a stranger acquired her drink and some foliage.

Does Teenie still get stage fright?

Teenie is not particularly nervous when she knows the material and feels prepared. Her biggest concern is usually not the audience. It is whether her voice will respond as expected. A guitarist can change a string or pick up another instrument; a singer’s instrument is physically part of them.

That is where her three-word description of herself makes sense: fun, expressive and emotive. The fun is visible. The emotion is why she chooses songs with somewhere to go.

What does Teenie do away from music?

Teenie is a serious Collingwood supporter and likes going to watch “my Collingwood boys” play. That is the off-stage detail most likely to start an argument in a Melbourne room, so we will leave it there.

What does Teenie want to do next?

International performance used to be one of Teenie’s major ambitions. Jakarta moved it off the wish list. Asked what should replace it, she chose the United States.

“Shoot for the stars.”

The child watching High-5 wanted to be a singer. She became one. America is next on the list.

Teenie FAQs

Who is Teenie from The Adele Show?

Teenie is Justine, a trained Melbourne vocalist and songwriter who performs harmony and featured vocal parts with The Adele Show. She also writes and performs original pop-punk and rock with Pink Rock Salt.

What is Teenie’s real name?

Her name is Justine. Friends and bandmates know her as Teenie.

How did Teenie become a singer?

She began in primary-school choir and performances, danced for about ten years, took classical singing lessons from around Year 7, performed lead roles at school and later completed formal contemporary-music training.

Where did Teenie study music?

Teenie studied contemporary music performance at JMC Academy with voice as her major area and completed a bachelor degree.

What bands does Teenie perform with?

She performs with The Adele Show and original Melbourne pop-punk/rock band Pink Rock Salt.

What type of music does Teenie like?

Her tastes include pop, pop-punk, rock, musical theatre and 1980s music.

Who influenced Teenie as a singer?

Her main vocal influences include Adele, Pink, Demi Lovato, Little Mix and musical-theatre performers, particularly singers known for large, expressive vocals. Her childhood music teacher, Teresa Tonks, was also a major personal inspiration.

What is Teenie’s favourite Adele song to perform?

“Water Under the Bridge” is her favourite Adele song to sing live.

Does Teenie write original music?

Yes. She writes and performs with Pink Rock Salt. Her favourite original song to perform is “Ballad of the Broken”, from the band’s 2025 album Never Explain.

Does Teenie still get nervous before performing?

Usually not when she knows the material and feels prepared. Her concern is more likely to be whether her voice will respond as expected than the size of the audience.

What have been Teenie’s biggest live performances?

She names The Adele Show’s 2026 Jakarta wedding as her biggest career highlight, followed closely by performing in the Members’ area at the MCG.

How does Teenie describe herself as a performer?

Fun, expressive and emotive.